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What about if they're driving cars into the nation's banks? Why does the scale of something magically invoke military power, rather than police? Nevermind, of
by scott_karana 13y ago
What about if they're driving cars into the nation's banks?
Why does the scale of something magically invoke military power, rather than police?
Nevermind, of course, that the World Trade Center was owned by the joint port authorities of the States of NY and NJ, not the "Nation".
- mpyne 13y agoI could be the idiot here, but I'm pretty sure that New York and New Jersey are 2 of the 50 United States which the Federal government is obligated to defend from foreign aggression. The answer to your first question can be illuminated a bit by considering a different question: Why do seagoing nations use Naval assets (instead of a coast guard auxiliary) to interdict and defeat pirates on the high seas?
- scott_karana 13y agoThe high seas? Do you mean international waters, such as those off the coast of Somalia? I'm just trying to make a point about warlike actions without formal declarations, in any case.
- mpyne 13y agoThe U.S. made a formal declaration (the 2001 AUMF). But I don't even have qualms comparing international waters to Afghanistan, because you have to consider that if a given piece of land is completely ungoverned, does it belong to a specific nation at all? If you say that the lands in Afghanistan from which AQ organized their terrorism was effectively governed by the Taliban and not a failed state, then it's even easier legally, as you have an actual causus belli for military action in response.